`Cyndi Lauper Look` A Big Hit -- But She`s Not Endorsing It

NEW YORK — Cyndi Lauper, who is almost as famous for her outrageous rag-tag wardrobe as her ability to belt out a song, has gone from bankruptcy to best new artist in less than two years.

The ascension for the 31-year-old from Queens, N.Y., has been accompanied by a news media blitz including videos, stints on televison talk shows and television wrestling specials.

Lauper, a Catholic high school dropout, has yet to cash in on the obvious merchandising potential her blaring, clanging breed of fashion holds, but that`s not stopping department stores and designers who figure the next best thing to the Lauper name is the Lauper image.

Rows of boutiques in New York`s Greenwich Village--and even big department stores--display the plaids, paisleys and rhinestones that Lauper and her pals wore in her joyous ``Girls Just Want to Have Fun`` video.

Lauper is not pleased to see people profiting on her style, and she refuses to give her endorsement to Cyndi Lauper jeans, Cyndi Lauper makeup or Cyndi Lauper jewelry. At least for now.

``If I did merchandising, I would give it more thought than a lot of these people who are just trying to cash in and get a quick buck,`` Lauper said recently, standing on the patio of a Central Park restaurant.

The offers have been pouring in. Lauper`s manager and boyfriend, David Wolff, said she has been pitched everything from writing a cookbook with her mother to selling her own brands of clothing and shoes.

He said there are ``no firm plans, no firm commitments``; Lauper said that`s because ``I don`t want to be commercial like that. I want to be a real artist. My integrity is real important.``

Her feelings about seeing her wild wardrobe and ever-changing hair colors (bright yellow and orange one week, tasteful pastel colors of the rainbow the next) become a national phenomenon are more difficult to sort out.

``I can walk down a block and see everything I`ve ever worn in a window,`` Lauper said. ``I mean, it`s amazing to see that. First, I`m blown away. And then I feel bad because I say, `What am I gonna wear?` ``

On this day, Lauper is wearing a black blouse studded with pink rhinestones, an ammunition belt, plaid pants, black velvet boots that stop at the ankle to show red hosiery, mirrored sunglasses and enough jewelry to sink a small ship. Her hair is multicolored and her eye shadow (blue on one side, rust on the other) starts at the eyelid and keeps going until it bumps into her hairline.

She is in her ``nice daywear,`` she explains, because she is accepting the Ford Mustang that comes with being named best new artist by Rolling Stone magazine.

She gamely poses for pictures with Ford executives at the luncheon, but tries to make clear as tactfully as she can that this is not an endorsement of the car. ``I don`t know how to drive,`` she says, as patrons even in this pricey restaurant gawk at her from their tables.

Lauper seems comfortable with her celebrity. Only two years ago, she was filing for bankruptcy after having lost her voice and then lost her band. Then came the solo album, ``She`s So Unusual,`` which has sold 4 million copies.

Lauper has been constantly in the public eye since the video for the album`s first single, ``Girls Just Want to Have Fun,`` made the song a hit.

The press has hailed her as the leader of the new pack of women rockers, and feminists have praised her for stressing individuality over sexuality, unlike fellow fashion-plate rocker Madonna.

Some fear Lauper`s flamboyant image may cross into a cartoon-character persona, like the wrestling personalities she includes in her music videos and has brought with her to awards shows.

She bristles when an outfit of hers is called a costume. To Lauper, it is ``a uniform to show choice.``

She says she wants people to say, ``I`m not going to buy the thing off the rack because you tell me that looks good. I`m going to buy what I think looks good and put together things that I like, because that`s creative dressing.

``And I guess that`s part of music and art, too. Maybe I don`t sculpt, but I get dressed, you know?``

``Cyndi has been dressing like this and wearing her hair differently for years, long before she became a star,`` Wolff said. ``She didn`t do this as any kind of a shtick--she`s like that on stage and off stage.``

Lauper now lives in Manhattan, just across the river from the Ozone Park section of Queens where her divorced mother raised her, elder sister Elen and younger brother Butch. Her mother often worked late into the night to make ends meet.

Cyndi held a variety of jobs--waitress and race-track attendant among them--before finding work singing back-up in a third-rate band in 1974. By 1977, she`d sung her voice raw and needed lessons to bring it back from a whisper.

Lauper then met a songwriter named John Turi at a nightclub and formed a band called Blue Angel, specializing in `50s-style music. Their one and only album was released in 1980 and fell flat commercially. The band followed suit. Lauper filed for bankruptcy to ward off a debt claimed by the band`s manager about the time her solo album, ``She`s So Unusual,`` was released in late 1983. ``Girls Just Want to Have Fun`` debuted on MTV on Oct. 12 of that year and Lauper`s career has boomed since.

She has just finished a music video and two songs for the Steven Spielberg film, ``Goonies,`` and is hard at work on a second video for the film.

``Video was originally a promotional tool, but I never look at it like that,`` Lauper said. ``I look at it as an art form and I kill myself to make sure that it stays that way.``

She also is starting to organize and write material for her second album, due next spring, and a single or a mini-album of Christmas songs will be released for the holidays.